ESPN Deportes Debuts Marketing Campaign featuring the Music of Calle 13 to Promote the 2015 Pan American Games

ESPN Deportes Debuts Marketing Campaign #YoDigoPresente featuring the Music of Calle 13 to Promote the 2015 Pan American Games

Highlighted by musical collaboration with Multi-Grammy Award winner Calle 13, the campaign features the powerful stories of the athletes’ journey to Toronto 2015.

ESPN and ESPN Deportes launched today #YoDigoPresente (“I am In”), a multimedia marketing campaign to promote the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games. The campaign features the captivating stories of the athletes’ journey to Toronto 2015 and the powerful music of Multi-Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winner, urban alternative band Calle 13 to engage sports fans across the country and throughout the Americas.

The campaign, set to debut today, features an anthem trailer developed by ESPN Deportes’ marketing team in partnership with creative agency Handle Like Eggs. The video features Calle 13’s lead singer René Pérez Joglar performing “La Vida, Respira el Momento” (Life, Breathe the Moment), from their 2014 Grammy-winning album “Multiviral”, and images of athletes in their training routine coupled with footage from past Pan American Games. The video not only serves as the theme for the marketing efforts, but will also be used across ESPN and ESPN Deportes’ production during the Games.

#YoDigoPresente aims to inspire hope, passion and national pride through the stories of participating athletes leading up to the Games. The song “La Vida, Respira el Momento”, about the journey of life and individuality, doesn’t only capture the essence of the Games, but also resonates across diverse audiences. Calle 13 represents a unifying voice for the U.S. Hispanic community and the participating Latin American countries, reinforcing the emotional connection to the Pan American Games.

“I am very happy to collaborate with ESPN to promote the Pan Am Games,” said René from Calle 13. “La Vida, Respira el Momento is about the journey of life and how we all prepare for specific moments; that’s what it’s all about for these athletes. I have always been a sports fan and using this single to represent such an important sports event makes me very proud.”

As part of the campaign, weekly Pan American Vignettes leading up to July 8, will also showcase the challenges, struggles and dedication of athletes from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the U.S. preparing to represent their respective country. In addition to the vignettes of more than 30 athletes, the stories will be packaged in different formats and distributed in- and off-channel, across programming and multiple platforms.

To further engage with sports fans, ESPN Deportes is also partnering with athletes to encourage fans to post pictures and videos demonstrating their country’s’ pride and support across social media by using the hashtag #YoDigoPresente.

“The Pan Am Games is a compelling sports event that features some of the best athletes in the world, and we wanted to make sure we focused our efforts on the power of storytelling and music,” said Michelle Bella, VP of consumer and ad sales marketing for ESPN Deportes. The stories of the athletes featured in the campaign, along with the music of Calle 13, allow us to create a powerful emotional connection with fans while generating excitement for the Games.”

#YoDigoPresente promotes the Games and supports the networks’ ambitious plan to cover the event in English and Spanish. ESPN Deportes will present more than 200 hours of Olympic-type multimedia coverage around the event from the host city of Toronto, and ESPN and ESPN 2 will dedicate more than 80 hours of live coverage.

The Pan American Games Toronto 2015 will take place July 10-26, featuring 36 Summer Olympic sports, such as soccer, boxing, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball, cycling, judo, etc. More than 7,000 athletes, representing 41 nations from the Americas, are expected to compete in Toronto. This is the third time that Canada hosts the event, and the first held in the providence of Ontario.

ESPN has been the U.S. home of the Pan American Games since 2007; the event is held every four years, and serves as a platform for many athletes looking to participate in the Olympic Games. In 2011, ESPN Deportes’ 125 hours of live coverage of the Pan American Game from Guadalajara delivered the highest ratings across all Spanish-language cable networks through the 17 days of the tournament. The ESPN Deportes telecasts, in addition to ESPN2’s coverage of select events, reached 19 million viewers.

Social media fans can follow the conversation around the 2015 Pan Am Games and interact using hashtag #PanamXESPN and #YoDigoPresente. To Tweet: http://es.pn/1yk5Xfk